


Game of Survival

by modxminty



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, Character Death, F/F, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Magnus Bane & Catarina Loss Friendship, POV Multiple, Protective Alec Lightwood, Protective Isabelle Lightwood, Simon Lewis & Alec Lightwood Friendship, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 12:47:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15143393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/modxminty/pseuds/modxminty
Summary: “Welcome to my house, nephilim and friends. I hope you enjoy your stay. Tonight, you're playing my game. It's a game of survival. If you can fight your way back outside by sunrise, you win. If you cannot, you all die. But be warned, not all of you will be making it home tomorrow. Play by the rules. I don't like cheaters, and you wouldn't want to get on my bad side. Your time starts now.”





	Game of Survival

**Author's Note:**

> Please feel free to point out any grammatical/spelling errors that you find so I can fix them.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” 

“It's what the map said.” 

“It looks pretty empty.” 

“Demon nests usually do.” 

“Will you three shut up?” 

The Shadowhunters moved through the yard, weapons at the ready as they crept towards the front door. There had been a massive spike in demonic activity at the mansion that morning, and the four set out to deal with it before something awful happened. It had taken them over an hour to find it, the building unknown to all of them. It was a brief walk from the institute, standing tall in a field between it and Takis, yet none of them had ever seen it before. It was physically imposing, almost impossible to miss, yet none of them had ever seen it. 

“I still say we should have called for backup.” Jace grumbled, his seraph blade casting out shadows on the grass as he walked at the front of the group. 

“Who did you want to call?” Izzy teased. “Simon? Maia? Magnus?” 

“Magnus, yeah, probably.” he snapped. 

Alec rolled his eyes. “Enough.” 

They had reached the home, if you could even call it a home, Izzy’s heels clicking on the stone steps and they climbed towards the front door. Jace looked back, waiting for Alec's consent to go in. Alec nodded, and Jace took a deep breath, pushing open the door. Despite the apparent age of the building, the door didn't creak. It opened smoothly to reveal a large, polished marble floor and a white walled entryway bigger than Alec's entire bedroom. Jace stepped in carefully, as if the floor was going to open up beneath him and swallow him whole. All appeared to be safe, so the girls followed behind him, Izzy’s heels even louder on the marble. 

“Rune your shoes.” Jace hissed. Izzy roller her eyes but complied, bending to swiftly trace a soundlessness rune into her shoes. Her next steps made a lot less noise. 

The three already inside started to move to different parts of the entryway, examining walls and floors, looking up the large, spiralling staircase to assess what may be above. Alec stepped inside, grabbing for an arrow in case he needed one. He took a few, maybe four, steps in, before the door slammed closed behind him. He spun, bow raised, eyeing the old oak. 

“That's not creepy at all.” Clary mused. If there was a way to respond to her comment, nobody could find it, and her words hung thickly in the air around them. 

Alec squinted a little, stepping closer to the door, looking for anything that could have caused it to slam. There was no wind, the room uncomfortably still. He couldn't see anything, no source of force that could have closed a door that heavy. 

“We should head upstairs,” Izzy suggested, and Alec turned to see her standing a few steps up, her whip resting loosely in her hand. “There could be something up there.” 

“There could also be something in any of these hallways.” Jace reminded her, gesturing vaguely at the three arching gaps where the hall continued down into other rooms. 

Izzy looked over at Alec, nodding at him. “It's your call, big brother.” 

Alec took a deep breath, saying his options. He didn't want the group too spread out, he was positive about that. The mansion was simply too big and unsafe to have everyone scattered around. An emergency could ruin everything at any moment, and if they were too far away anything could happen. The map had shown at least twenty demons in the area, maybe more, and he wasn't going to risk everyone's safety for an increase in efficiency. But Jace was also right. Anything could be in any of the hallways or behind any of the doors, and they needed to know. It was their job to get rid of the demons and Alec was not leaving that house until the problem had been dealt with which, judging by the size of the building, would take them forever, the time only increasing if they didn't split up. 

“Izzy, look upstairs. Clary, Jace, take two of the hallways,” Alec instructed. “Take a brief look around, you've got two minutes tops. Don't go further than you have to, don't look in any doors. Come back here when you're done and we'll decide the best course of action. Stay within a straight shot to the exit incase something goes wrong.” 

Jace nodded, heading off down the hallway closest to him, Clary taking the one on the other side of the entryway. Izzy gave him a brief smile, rushing up the stairs. 

“Be careful.” she called down at him, grinning, when she reached the top. 

Alec rolled his eyes, smiling back anyways, proving the annoyance was just for show. “Are you sure I shouldn't be telling you that?” 

She grinned again, ducking through the archway and into the room above, leaving Alec to take the hallway furthest from the door. He raised his bow as he went, stepping carefully, making sure he took in all of his surroundings. The hall ahead of him was dark, the paint on the walls chipping, and so far it was the only part of the house he'd seen that accurately portrayed it's age. Even the soundlessness rune carefully turned it no the souls of his boots didn't stop the sounds of his shoes from echoing between the walls. There was probably a light switch in the hall somewhere, but he didn't dare look for it, instead trusting his night vision rune to do its job. The hallway was long, seeming to only get longer the more steps he took, and so far he had yet to encounter anything other than blank walls. There was no furniture, no doors, no windows. It was devoid of all signs of living, the space instead seeming like a straight maze, a hall with no end. He should turn back, this area wasn't good, but something was drawing him forwards, pulling him to find the end of the path. 

Izzy screamed, a high pitched, ear piercing noise, and Alec was retched back into his head. He spun, lowering his how and sprinting back down the hall, his safety no longer a concern to him over his sisters. The hallway seemed just as long going back as it did coming down, and he found himself more tired from running for a minute than had to be healthy for a Shadowhunter. By the time he burst back into the entryway the screaming seemed like a distant memory, something that happened years ago, and fear coiled in his gut. The screaming hadn't caught the attention of either Jace or Clary, both probably ignoring his directions and going so far into the house that they didn't hear it. He took that as a sign that he should look for her himself, and climbed upstairs as quickly as possible. 

She wasn't there. The area at the top of the stairs was tiny, a circular room with windows all along one wall, and there was nowhere she could have gone but back downstairs. “Izzy?” Alec called, leaning over the taking slightly to look for any sign of his sister. “Izzy!” 

The lack of response prompted him to go back downstairs, ducking his head into all of the hallways again, looking outside. “Jace? Clary?” nobody responded to his shouting, and he soon found himself completely and utterly alone in the giant house. 

Alec turned in a circle, trying to look for anywhere else they may have gone, and caught sight of something dark in the corner of his eye. He turned quickly towards it, hoping to find a sign of one of his companions, but was instead met with a metal bat straight to the back of his head. He didn't register anything else as he collapsed, his head smashing into the marble tiles and the walls around him going fuzzy as his consciousness left him. 

“Alexander? Alexander?” a hand shaking his shoulder stirred Alec from his unwanted unconsciousness. He opened his eyes only to snap them closed again when he found himself faced with too bright lights, his head pounding from where he had been hit. He probably had a concussion, he thought bitterly as he forced himself to sit up, opening his eyes slowly. 

“Magnus?” he asked, catching sight of his boyfriend, who let out a breath that could have sounded like a laugh if you weren't paying attention. “Did you redecorate?” he didn't recognize any of the furniture, but Magnus often bought new things when he wasn't home.

He shook his head, looking around him, and Alec suddenly realized that they weren't the only people in the room. “No, darling, this isn't my loft.” 

“Are you alright? You got hit pretty hard.” it was Jace, dropping down on one knee next to Alec to gently assess the damage done by the bat. 

His headache was slowly drifting, but his mind still felt hazy. “Can I get an iratze?” 

“No,” Izzy said from her position next to a window, a gash running across her forehead. “We don't have our steles." 

Alec sat up straighter, trying to get a feel for the area and the people in the room with him. Clary was still laying passed out on a couch, and Alec bitterly wondered why he had been left to lay on the floor. Izzy, Jace, and Magnus were also there, as well as Simon, Maia, Catarina, Raphael, and for some reason, Lydia. “Where are we?” 

Lydia shook her head. “We don't know.” 

“Do we know anything?” he hissed, using Magnus as support as he forced himself off the ground, his back aching from his fall. 

“Unfortunately, no,” Catarina sighed. Alec momentarily wondered where Madzie was, but the thought was swept away by her next words. “None of us even remember getting here.” 

“I do,” he mumbled, rubbing at his temple. “I was knocked out, probably dragged down here.” 

“That's more than any of us.” Maia mused, her arm wrapped around Simon, who appeared to be shaking. 

“None of us can use any of our powers in here. No runes, no magic, no shifting, no fangs.” Lydia laughed bitterly. Alec related to the noise. 

“So we're stuck here not knowing why.” Izzy huffed, plopping down on the couch, where Clary had awoken some time during all of their observations and was now sitting curled up in the corner, her eyes panicked. 

“We should look around,” Alec suggested, slipping away from Magnus’s arm that had wrapped around his waist. “See if we can find anything that might tell us where we are.” 

“We've done that already. There isn't anything.” Raphael hissed. 

Alec hummed in frustration, yanking his hand through his hair. Magnus gently laid a hand on Alec's arm, rubbing small circles into his wrist that calmed him down considerably. Alec calming down, however, didn't help the situation at hand. “There has to be something, anything we can use.” 

“Guys,” Simon broke the heated moment, pointing to the wall across from him, his hand shaking. “That wasn't there before.” 

Everyone turned, eyes catching on a massive map covering half the wall that, Simon was right, had not been there when Alec woke up.

“What the fuck?” Jace hissed, walking closer to it. 

“Be careful!” Clary pleaded. 

He ignored her, taking another step closer and laying his hand on the map. “It looks like a map the house.” he said, tracing a line across it to a group of red letters reading ‘you are here’. 

“Let me see.” Lydia said, crossing the room to examine the paper alongside Jace. 

Alec stepped up beside Jace, his own eyes roaming over the map trying to find something useful. Jace was right, it was definitely a map of the house, and the area they were in now was incredibly far from where they started. “Wait,” he said, pushing down on the part of the map that was written on. The canvas split under the pressure of his finger, much too easily for something that strong, and he pulled it back to reveal a small hole in it, a piece of paper tucked safely inside. He pulled it out quickly, unrolling it to reveal a note. 

“What is it?” Catarina asked, stepping closer, her arms crossed over her chest defensively. 

“It's a note,” Alec said, eyes skimming over the words, reading them aloud for the sake of the others in the room. “‘The key is in the ashes’ what the hell does that mean?” 

“Do we need to look for a key?” Clary asked, pulling herself up, the back of the couch acting as support as she stumbled. 

“Try it.” Alec said, already moving to try and find whatever key it was they were looking for.

They all split up, looking under and behind things, turning over tables and couch cushions. Magnus was looking behind paintings, Clary using her small frame to look underneath the coffee table. 

“I found something!” Simon called. He had removed a rather large painting from the wall and was now staring at a hole in the wall far too small for anything large to be in. 

“Can anyone fit in there?” Jace asked, trying and failing to get his upper body into the hole. 

“I probably can.” Clary said, stepping forwards to examine the darkness beyond the crack. 

Alec stepped up beside her. General observation told him there was no chance he'd make it through there, but there was a chance Clary would. “Are you sure you want to?” he asked, placing a hand gently on her shoulder. 

Clary nodded, rolling up her sleeves and stepping up to the hole. She managed to get her upper body through relatively easily, but her small stature left her without much ground she could cover. She slowly wormed her way in further, her legs kicking where they were left without solid ground, pulling herself further and further into the wall. 

“I got something!” she shouted, her voice muffled by the plaster and wood. “Pull me out!” 

Magnus did as requested, grabbing one of her legs to pull her from the wall as gently as possible. Once her feet were back on solid ground she pulled the rest of her body from the wall, holding an old wooden box in her hands. She walked over to the coffee table and set it down, plopping down on the couch in front of it. 

“A box?” Lydia mused, clearly unhappy with Clary's find, sitting down on a far corner of the couch. 

“Wait, wait,” Simon, who had sat down on one side of Clary, leaned forwards, examining the box. “It's locked. We need a key.” 

“Alright, so we are looking for a key.” Magnus commented, clapping his hands and moving to continue looking for the object, the others going as well. 

Alec couldn't find anything, turning over almost everything in the room, trying desperately to find any sign of the mentioned key. They had looked everywhere and there was no sign of a key. He'd tried ripping holes in paintings like he'd done to get the original note but there was still nothing, most of them refusing to rip, even when a knife was used to try and break them. 

“I found it! I found it!” Lydia called out, working her way out from under a table. She was holding a bright gold key, her hands coated in something dark. 

“Where was it?” Izzy asked, taking the key and handing her a towel to wipe her hands on, to which Lydia smiled gratefully. 

She smiled, wiping her hands down. “An ashtray.” 

“They key is in the ashes,” Jace laughed, patting her on the shoulder. “That was smart.” 

“You don't get high positions in the clave for being stupid.” she smirked, throwing the towel down on the table and moving to watch Clary work at the box. 

Clary slipped the key in, turning it carefully, and breathed a sigh of relief when it popped open. The pulled it off quickly, opening the box to reveal four pieces of paper and a note taped to the lid. 

“What does it say?” Raphael asked. 

Maia pulled the note from the lid, eyes skimming over it as she read. 

“Welcome to my house, nephilim and friends. I hope you enjoy your stay. Tonight, you're playing my game. It's a game of survival. If you can fight your way back outside by sunrise, you win. If you cannot, you all die. But be warned, not all of you will be making it home tomorrow. Play by the rules. I don't like cheaters, and you wouldn't want to get on my bad side. Your time starts now.”

“What the fuck!” Jace shouted, taking the note from Maia to make sure she read it right.   
Magnus sucked in a deep breath, grabbing tightly to Alec's arm. “What does it mean ‘not all of us will be making it home’?” 

“I think it means he's gonna kill us.” Izzy said. 

Simon sat down harshly. “We've just gotta make it outside, that's all. The faster we do this, the better.” 

“Simon's right,” Lydia said, leaning over the back of the couch to look at the papers Clary was holding. “Nobody is guaranteed to die, it's just likely.” 

“That doesn't make me feel much better.” Jace grumbled under his breath. 

“Okay,” Alec said, dragging his hand through his hair and moving closer to the box. “We can do this. We just need to figure out how to get out of this room.” 

“Alec, look at this.” Lydia said, grabbing the papers from clary wand walking over to him, her heels clicking dully on the carpeted floor. 

He took the offered papers, looking them over, his eyes narrowing as he struggled to make sense of the endless script. “None of this makes any sense.”

“What do you think it means?” Lydia asked, crossing her arms as she leaned closer to him. The steady warmth of her at his side balled to calm him down, clearing his head of the confusion and anger the original note had left. 

He shuffled between papers, noticing five of them in total, before turning back to Clary. “Is there anything else in the box?” 

Simon pulled out a thick sheet with holes in it and Maia jumped out of her seat, grabbing it from him. “I know what this is,” she grabbed the first sheet from Alec's hands, laying it down on the table, and placed the new one on top, moving it until it fit perfectly above the other. “‘Boat’, what the hell does boat mean?” 

“Here,” Izzy called, rushing over to a massive painting of a boat on the wall that stretched from floor to ceiling. “Jace, help me move this.” 

Each grabbed a side, shifting the heavy canvas away from its place on the wall, quickly revealing a door, found locks holding it shut. 

“Oh thank god.” Magnus huffed, a smile taking over his face despite the situation. 

“What do the locks need?” Maia asked, taking the other four papers from Alec's hands. 

“Numbers,” Jace called back. “Four each.” 

“Is this the order the papers were in the box?” Maia asked, setting the guide sheet up over one of the papers. 

Lydia nodded, but since Maia couldn't see her, she spoke as well. “Yes. We didn't change the order.” 

Maia nodded, doing the same as she had with the first sheet to the second, third, and fourth, writing the numbers hastily on the back of the sheet with letters as she worked. “Okay, okay, I've got it,” she said, standing up quickly, nearly tripping over herself in her rush to get to the door. Jace and Izzy were already there, ready to put in the numbers needed. “Four, nine, zero, seven,” Jace shuffled the lock, grinning in satisfaction when it clicked open. “Two, five, one, eight,” the second lock clicked open. “Nine, three, three, six,” the third lock opened, and the people in the room looked at each other happily as Maia read out the last numbers. “One, zero, six, zero.” the last lock opened, and Izzy pulled Maia into a hug, a relieved smile spreading across her face. 

Jace pulled the door open and everyone stood, unmoving as the waited for someone else to make the first move. The space outside the door was so dark it was black, all of them unable to see anything outside. The look at each other, unsure of what to do next. Alec rolled his shoulders back, taking a deep breath and stepping forwards. He grabbed a flashlight that was sitting on a shelf, switching it on, and stepped out into the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> If you can guess what this is based on you get ten points towards something idk. This won't be updated on any strict schedule cause I've got four fics going at once now. This is gonna get really fucked up really fast, so don't read if you're not into that. Comment your opinions/theories/criticisms or whatever idk but I like reading them. Enjoy the rest of this.


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